Will Notre Dame now join the Big Ten? The future of the Irish has become murky

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Will Notre Dame play USC for the Big Ten championship someday? 

That question isn't as ridiculous as it would have sounded 24 hours ago. On Thursday, John Wilner reported that "USC and UCLA are planning to leave for the Big Ten as early as 2024." That is the next major realignment shakeup that is sure to be felt across the FBS. The Big Ten would join the SEC as a 16-team superconference, and both might not be done adding teams. 

So the next question is easy: What happens to Notre Dame? On Thursday, the news in South Bend was that the Irish would wear green jerseys for this year's game against Cal. 

The Irish's future in the college football landscape might be more a pertinent issue at this point. Would Notre Dame entertain joining one of those superconferences? Would the deal that ties the Irish to the ACC hold up in the brave new college football world? Will Notre Dame somehow stay independent? 

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What are the possible scenarios for the program that has steadfastly held on to its independent status through all the college football realignments of the last 30 years.

Notre Dame joins the ACC 

The Irish are hitched to a pair of television contracts. The deal with NBC runs through 2025 and draws approximately $15 million per year. ESPN's contract with the ACC runs through 2036. That grant of rights deal includes language that if Irish choose to join a conference in football before 2036, they are contractually obligated to join the ACC.

Notre Dame did join the ACC in football for one year in 2020 because of COVID-19, and it was a huge success. The Irish beat No. 1 Clemson 47-40 on Nov. 7, 2020 in NBC’s highest-rated ND game in 27 years before losing the ACC championship game to the Tigers 34-10. Both teams made the College Football Playoff. To this point, Notre Dame's five-game arrangement with the ACC has worked. 

That was before Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC. The SEC and Big Ten will have 16 teams by 2025 at the latest, and that number could increase in the near future.  

If the ACC is to remain the ACC as we know it, then adding Notre Dame makes sense. The Irish are the best dance partner left on the floor, and the conference could keep its standing as the bridge between the SEC and Big Ten and the rest of the conferences scurrying to keep up. 

Of course, what happens if the SEC and Big Ten simply plunder the ACC next? Notre Dame isn't going to join the ACC if Clemson, Miami and others are on the way out. 

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Notre Dame joins the Big Ten 

Notre Dame does play hockey in the Big Ten, but that's not a sport played in the ACC or SEC. 

Notre Dame had long-standing rivalries with Michigan and Michigan State, and the home-and-home series with Ohio State the next two years will be on the short list of best non-conference games. 

So, why not do that every year? If college football becomes an NFL Lite model with the Big Ten and SEC playing the roles of the AFC and NFC and the ACC crumbles, then it would make the most sense for Notre Dame to join the Big Ten. 

The conference now has coast-to-coast appeal with USC and UCLA, and those rivalries with the traditional Big Ten schools could resume. Mike Golic Jr. is among those who sees the logic in that move. 

Imagine a conference that's front-liners include Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Notre Dame and USC. Is this the sell that ends the acrimonious relationship between the Irish and Big Ten that puts them in the conference once and for all? 

This scenario makes more sense than Notre Dame becoming the first traditional Midwest power to join the SEC, though it's not impossible given that Clemson, Miami and Florida State would be among the candidates to join the conference if it pushes membership to 20-plus schools. 

Still, the Big Ten makes more sense. 

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Notre Dame stays independent

This remains an option for the Irish, but it's getting to be a riskier proposition with each move in the realignment cycle. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick has a seat along with the other 10 FBS commissioners and was active when talks of CFP expansion were hot last summer. 

The Irish have been able to maintain independent status through the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff eras, and they reached the BCS championship once and CFP semifinals twice. The program has proven it can be successful, even with the onset of NIL, with first-year coach Marcus Freeman's success on the recruiting trail proof. 

But USC, the Irish's primary rival, is reportedly set to join a conference that contains some of Notre Dame's old traditional rivals such as Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue. Independent status might be tougher in the new world of college football, with 2025 being a key date for the CFP, the Irish's television contracts and Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC. 

Notre Dame will cling to that independence as long as it can, and those rivalries with the service academies are not the same as the potential Big Ten partners. Not in 2022. 

That USC-Notre Dame Big Ten matchup is no longer as far-fetched as it seems.

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Bill Bender is a national college football writer for The Sporting News.